Many of the foods we eat contain ingredients that seem to be taken from dystopian fantasy stories. What is really hiding in our food?
BBC Future has found out that many of the foods we eat contain ingredients that seem to be taken from dystopian science fiction stories. Where did they come from there?
In all sorts of dystopias describing the future, food is often portrayed as something that is disguised as normal food. Seemingly ordinary burgers, cookies and other products are actually algae or some kind of protein pressed in a special way, because humanity no longer has enough space or money to get food in a normal way.
In fact, the mass production of food fillers is already a reality today, and not at all because we can no longer receive food from other sources, it is just that it is more convenient and cheaper for manufacturers of semi-finished products. The same applies to people who consume these products - it is more convenient for them. Although we do not always realize this when heating ready-made cutlets in the microwave.
A variety of ingredients can be classified in this category, from gelatin to minced sausage. In the United States, many still remember the scandal that erupted several years ago over the use of finely chopped and disinfected beef trimmings in semi-finished meat products, which the American television company ABC dubbed "pink slime." By itself, this substance did not harm human health, but the description of the disinfection process made some tremble. In many ways, the objections to its use were purely aesthetic in nature - for example, an interesting article about this filler and its provocative name was published in the American online magazine Slate, which resulted in the filing of a lawsuit against ABC.
Recently, however, beef trimmings have been re-used, in large part because it is a cheap and efficient way to produce meat products at a time when beef prices are skyrocketing due to dry weather in the US pastoralist states.
Another product of the future - widespread, but perhaps less well-known - consists of soybeans. This filler is striking in its variety.
After thousands of years of consumption in Asia, soybeans finally came to the West. By 1888, a French company, drawing attention to the extremely low carbohydrate content of this product, was making soy flour bread for diabetics. Other products followed, and in 1921 an Austrian inventor patented a method for making soy flour, which he called "semolina for the hungry" in an article for the British newspaper Times of London, citing its cheapness and nutritional value.
Due to these characteristics, during the Second World War, ground soybeans were often added to other products that were included in soldiers rations and humanitarian supplies. By the end of the war, the production of soy supplements had become a thriving business in the United States (the American research center Soyinfo devoted an entire book to this topic).
An important step towards the modern way of eating soy - as a substitute for other foods - was taken in the 1960s, when scientists developed a method for the production of soy protein, which has a porous texture.
First, the fat is removed from the soybeans, and sometimes also the sugar and fiber, then they are crushed into a white powder, which is mixed in special machines with water or steam, so that the result is a kind of dough. Soy dough is fed into an extruder - of course, you will not see such a device in the kitchen at home, but it is necessary for the production of semi-finished products. With the hum of the machines, the dough under high pressure is pushed through the pipe, strictly adhering to a certain temperature and humidity level, in order to induce a chemical reaction during which the proteins contained in it unfold and form a network.
The resulting mass is cut into sticky slices that can replace meat in a variety of products (when I was writing this article, for hours, as if spellbound, I watched YouTube videos on which the extrusion of soy was demonstrated to romantic music, and many of these videos were clearly filmed on Asian factories by someone with shaking hands).
Soy protein is now found in many foods - not only in veggie cutlets and other meat substitutes, but also in ground beef, cookies, chocolate bars, burritos, breads, salad dressings, pasta, whipped cream, soups, and cold meats. Soy protein is almost tasteless, so you can add almost any flavor to it. Its texture can also be very diverse, so soy protein can be made in any way by sight and by touch, and with the help of machines it is possible to sculpt a huge number of forms from it, like from plasticine.
In terms of nutritional value, soy protein is a good addition to ground beef and other meat products. There is definitely less fat, and in terms of the amount of protein per unit of required area of land, the efficiency of using natural resources in the production of this product is higher than in cattle breeding. And, perhaps the most important factor from the point of view of the manufacturer, and perhaps the consumer, soy protein is often much cheaper than the products it replaces.
And in fact - what is not the food of the future from a fantastic story? Unsurprisingly, food manufacturers are reluctant to mention this. The slogan "The same as what people who are locked in a spaceship eat!" hardly able to attract a buyer. But such products and processes have already become an integral part of the modern food industry. It's up to you if you want to remember this every time you buy yourself a burger.
